zach46290

That was for 2 people, but it has since gone down to $780. While you can not change airlines and routing, you are able to changes dates and every time you do so they recalculate taxes and fees, not sure how it went down so much but i'm not complaining.

sartrism

I'm about to book the following itinerary for our honeymoon on July 2019. From Boston, the main destination is Seychelles but stops include Seoul (where we marry), Koh Samui (to shorten the first flight), and Dubai (to avoid a stop-over in Istanbul). Thanks to @john c wisconsin who gave me a rough idea for the initial routing. This will be my first ever award ticketing

All business classes
ORD-ICN (OZ)
ICN-BKK (TG)
BKK-ADD-SEZ (ET)
SEZ-ADD-DXB (ET)
DXB-IST-BOS (TK)

Total distance is 24,268mi for 145K miles + $500 fees each person. It's sad that I could not add BKK-USM (PG/TG) because they don't release award tickets to partners anymore. Also I could not find any award ticket for BOS-ORD (UA). Otherwise either one would make it exactly 25,000mi that is the maximum for 145K ANA miles. I doubt there is more optimal way to reduce the number of stops or fees. For example, BOS-YYZ-ICN (AC) was not available although I know they don't have any surcharge. Actually this might be the only possibility for our schedule considering some routes are in the peak season.

(Edit: Bookandfly said the fee will be $900 each, but surprisingly ANA confirmed it is $600-ish!)

ruby215

Hi all,

I just called in this morning to book by RTW trip for May next year. Agent managed to find availability for all the flights I wanted. But she did say that they will have to call me back (within 3 days) after they check with the ticketing office on the amount of taxes required before ticketing the ticket. Is that normal?

john c wisconsin

I have not heard of that and not what I experienced in June when I booked. Perhaps there is some other factor(software being down?) or something that has changed. I hope they had a way to put a courtesy hold on it for you. Good luck. I would be calling for a supervisor if you don't hear anything in three days. Let us know what you snagged for routes and airlines when you do book it.

ruby215

The only reason why I think they told me that they will call me back is that I called in when it was after office hours Japan time?

The agent did say that the tickets were confirmed, even have a PNR, but just not ticketed yet.

Thanks to the help of many in this forum, my itinerary for travel next May is as such is:

JFK-ICN (OZ)
ICN-BKK (TG)
BKK-SIN (SQ)
SIN-IST (SQ)
IST-WAW (LO)
WAW-CPH (SK)
CPH-EWR (SK)

All in J.

john c wisconsin

That looks like an awesome honeymoon. You are going to need baseball caps that say "Bride" and "Groom" in like seven languages! I would be interested to hear the comparison of service and amenities between some of these carriers. After you book it and select seats on the individual airlines use the food special requests to note you are on honeymoon. I am sure FA's would love to give you VIP service and if you really luck out maybe you can snag a honeymoon upgrade from J to F.

sartrism

Just called for the reservation and paid the fees.

Did you ask the representative to hold the tickets? In my case, after she confirmed my itinerary is valid, she gave me two options: (1) hold tickets and the ticketing desk will call me within 3 days to finish payment, or (2) pay right away if I'm ready. I chose (2) and she said she need to ask the ticketing desk how much it is. After 3 minutes or so, she came back and told me the fee is $600 each. It seems like booking and ticketing is separated and after I gave her the credit card information, she had to send it to the ticketing desk again. I guess you just chose the first option?

By the way I called to the toll-free US number around 3PM ET.

ruby215

Yes I chose option 1. Called them back later that evening and paid for my ticket fee. It worked out to be $800 in total.

Tom Dyson

I just booked this itinerary in business class:

Tel Aviv to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian
Addis Ababa to Mumbai on Ethiopian
Mumbai to Bangkok on Thai
Bankok to Hong Kong on Thai
Hong Kong to Beijing on Air China
Beijing to Tokyo on ANA
Tokyo to Newark on United
Newark to Tel Aviv on United

21,629 miles
125,000 points
164,000 yen ($1,455) in taxes and fees

My question: Having read the examples posted above and elsewhere, I was expecting to pay max $600 in taxes and fees for this route. Especially as I used United and Ethiopian for three of the longest legs and I avoided all European airlines. How come my ticket cost so much? I’m pretty bummed about it...

john c wisconsin

That does seem a little high. According to the chart I used for reference 6 months ago, the individual fuel/ins sur charges by airlines would be:
Tel Aviv to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian $107
Addis Ababa to Mumbai on Ethiopian $107
Mumbai to Bangkok on Thai $52
Bankok to Hong Kong on Thai $52
Hong Kong to Beijing on Air China $214
Beijing to Tokyo on ANA $86
Tokyo to Newark on United none
Newark to Tel Aviv on United none

So roughly $600 of that is from the airlines you are using and the rest would be normal taxes and airport charges.

Ref ANA fuel surcharges from April 2018.

Wasabi Tofu

6 months ago was a long time ago because recent hike of oil price.
For example,
ANA's N.A route surcharge was 10,500JPY from 1Apr2018 to 31May2018.
However, 14,000JPY at 1Oct2018.

travelbarefeet

Hello, I'm looking to do LAX-WAW-CPH-PEK-ICN-LAX and I'd like to find the lowest fuel surcharges out there. I've been reading but I can't seem to figure it out. Can someone help point me in the right direction?

It seems that:

LAX-WAW - would be on LOT Airlines
WAW-CPH - LOT Airlines
CPH-PEK - can be on SAS or Air China (not sure which is cheaper on taxes. Seems like SAS is now fuel surcharge free?)
PEK-ICN - looks like 2 choices, Air China or Asiana (I've seen charts where long haul flights have higher fuel surcharges than short haul flights but I can't figure this out)
ICN-LAX - seems like mostly Asiana Airlines.

If someone can point me in the right direction, that'd be great. Thanks!

Oh, I wanted to ask - do you figure out fuel surcharges on all segments? Or only on stopovers? For example, LAX to NRT on ANA, layover for 3 hours then NRT to ICN on Asiana Airlines. How would I figure out the fuel surcharges on that?

Thanks!

john c wisconsin

Take a look at these two links for some guidance:
- one for fuel
- two some airport charges in europe

Based on numbers that are 6 months old
CPH-PEK - can be on SAS or Air China - Air China $214 SAS should be none
PEK-ICN - looks like 2 choices, Air China or Asian Asiana half the charge ($111)

If you are ok with either choice it looks like you could shave over $300 off each ticket.

One way to calculate to run your trip through star alliance around the world. Get their total for the trip on the airlines you selected take off their fuel surcharges/insurance and add back in from what you see on the links "one" above.

I believe all fuel charges would apply to each SEGMENT unless it is a true same flight number with a stop. That is my understanding but others might have first hand knowledge of it working differently in some situations.

Good luck that looks like some fun destinations. Just curios, are you using the ANA award section of the web site to find options on each leg or some other site?

travelbarefeet

Here's an example -

1) ANA 176 - NRT-LAX (YQ: ¥14,100 ~ $125.28 US)

2) OZ 108 - ICN-NRT
ANA 176 - NRT-LAX (YQ: ₩20,300 ~ $17.96 US)

So it looks like the first flight dictates the YQ? Or maybe only in this instance? I'm not sure.

I search for all my flights so far using UA website.

For the PEK-ICN flight, when I looked at the 6 month chart, they differentiate between long and short haul flights. I wonder how would you distinguish between the 2? Or just use the numbers that pop up in ITA Matrix?

Also, on that 6 months old chart, it says Air China charges $214 (this is only data points for a single flight that he found correct? This is not across the board for all flights?) This is what I found:

Air China 878 - CPH-PEK (YQ: kr1,075.00 ~ $119.59 US)

So I go with the $119.59 amount?

joelangphoto

Just booked my RTW ticket after months of planning! All segments in business class.

YYZ - CPH (AC)
VIE - BKK (TG)
BKK - SIN (TG)
SIN - SYD (SQ)
TPE - YVR (AC)

Originally had booked return ticket from ICN - LAX, however apparently agents noted Canada and USA are different countries for award booking. So had to get creative and was lucky to stumble across TPE - YVR on AC. Both AC segments rather rare and difficult to come by, at least during my search.

Also, first agent on the phone told me that since I was flying to SYD I could not then depart on my next segment from ICN/TPE. However I tried to find documentation of this and could not. Next agent was very helpful and told me no rules prohibited such a routing.

Total was 115,000 miles and $240 in taxes. An absolute steal!